Elderberry syrup has become a sweet treat to the kids. I love them to love the food I make cause it's yummy AND good for them. They have no idea that it's "medicine" they just love it. It is such a valuable immune boosting medicine. Have your tried it?
Elderberry syrup is easy to make. If you don't have a tree take a look around where you live and you may be surprised to find some in your neighbourhood just drooping with berries.
My oldest has always been keen to get up first thing in the morning and do his own thing for a while. Since he could toddle his way out of the bed he spends early mornings reading and playing. Often the sound of LEGO block searching gets me up.
Lately though, he's been into foraging first thing and the sound of the cookie jar lid at 6:45am often wakes me up.
My way to combat this behaviour, rather than get myself out of bed, is to just make cookies and muffins so chock full of goodness they pass for "pre-breakfast" and this mom can sleep on.
And while the days leading up to it were so full, Easter unfolded with such ease this year that allowed for all kinds of creativity, including making Ukrainian Easter eggs.
I realize it's become increasingly hard to give myself time. I run this business from our home. I love cooking and baking for our family but it's a part time job. Homemade marshmallows and soup and bagels are sooo good. And I get so much joy from doing it.
I crave more joy in my life.
And then there's the laundry, sweeping, and snack making that seem to work together to fill every other spare moment there is. Oh yeah, and I'm unschooling the hooligans.
Unschooling requires energy and attention and the willingess to go with the flow. And there's a whole lot of mental energy required to deschool myself.
The hooligans and I had such fun baking these. We actually do most of our home learning when we bake.They loved making the Tanzhong in the first step and it opened up all kinds of conversations about baking, Asia, language, chemisty, stories from when I was a pastry chef. And we smelled the cinnamon and meausred and mixed and rolled the dough. And while it rested to let the yeast do it's magic we rested too. And talked a little bit about yeast and sourdough and looked for the dental floss.
